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Drawing of High Point Furniture Co. from High Point Illustrated, published in 1906
North Carolina is renowned for its high-quality furniture production, and the Piedmont city of High Point specifically is known as the “Furniture Capital of the World.” This moniker was earned during the late-nineteenth through mid-twentieth centuries, when the furniture industry was at its “high point.” Thanks to our partners at the High Point Museum, new materials now available on Digital NC give unique insight into this storied history with catalogs, Chamber of Commerce pamphlets, directories, and more. These documents roughly span the first half of the twentieth century, and provide a great deal of information on the prominent figures and companies in North Carolina’s furniture industry. Researchers can also visit High Point Museum’s Online Collections here to see more.
Couches from the Hi-Lite Illustrated catalog featuring Hi-Life of High Point, Inc. couch line in 1964
Thanks to our partners at the Edgecombe County Memorial Library, Digital NC has digitized new materials from Tarboro and Edgecombe County, North Carolina. These documents include architectural photographs; minutes, photographs, invitations, and other records from the Edgecombe Magazine Club; a new W.S. Clark ledger from 1909; a scrapbook from the Gettysburg Veterans Reunion of 1913; and a family Bible from the Bridgers family of Edgecombe County.
Additionally, we have added a new collection of materials from Dr. Moses A. Ray (1920-1995), a dentist, mayor, community advocate and leader in Tarboro. Dr. Ray was a graduate of Shaw University and Howard University, where he earned his doctorate in dentistry. After settling in Tarboro in 1946, he helped establish the Edgecombe Credit Union for African-Americans, was a trustee of the Edgecombe Technical Institute, led the East Tarboro Citizens League, was a member of the North Carolina Board of Transportation, and served on the Tarboro Town Council and as the first post-Reconstruction African-American mayor of Tarboro. This list comprises only a portion of the many leadership roles he held in Tarboro over the second half of the twentieth century. His community service was honored with many certificates and plaques that are now available as a part of the collection on Digital NC.
Visitors to the site can also see photographs from throughout Dr. Ray’s life depicting some of his work in the Tarboro community. We have also added a program from a 2015 Phoenix Historical Society educational program honoring his life of service, which further details some of his accomplishments like helping establish low-income housing and paved roads in East Tarboro. The Phoenix Historical Society records and promotes the African-American history of Edgecombe County; researchers can learn more online or in the East Carolina University Manuscript Collection. View the Dr. Moses Ray Collection here and see the rest of our Edgecombe County Memorial Library materials here.
Lee County Public Libraries has shared a large collection of materials relating to Sanford, Jonesboro, and the greater Lee County area, now available on Digital NC. Here at NCDHC, we are thrilled to work with a new partner and broaden our representation of “the heart of North Carolina.” Visitors to the site can now view nearly one hundred years of documents, including bulletins and directories; county fair and circus programs; personal records; Chamber of Commerce pamphlets; many photographs of residents, homes, and businesses; scrapbooks; school programs, records, and yearbooks; and more. Also available are forty-four years of minutes from the Pierian Club, a women’s club and Sanford’s oldest literary society. Records from these societies, common in the twentieth century, give unique insight into the activities of middle-class North Carolina women.
Sanford has historically been an important site for manufacturing and industry, and was established at the junction of the Raleigh and Augusta Air Line and Western Railroads. The early twentieth century saw rapid expansion, thanks to Sanford’s location on the railways and its official incorporation as a city in 1907, as well as the growth of manufacturing throughout the Piedmont. Tobacco in particular contributed to Sanford’s growth, which is reflected in many of the photographs and documents now available on the site. Many of the newly digitized materials are concerned with attracting more business to Sanford and advertising its various commercial enterprises. Sanford suffered economic downturns in the Great Depression and again in the 1960s and ’70s as tobacco and manufacturing declined.
Thanks to investment in economic diversification at the end of the twentieth century, Sanford has again become a vibrant and growing community with many manufacturing jobs and a diverse population of over 60,000 residents. Researchers can learn more about Lee County here and view all of our digitized materials from Lee County Public Libraries here.
New materials from Rocky Mount, N.C. are now available on Digital NC thanks to our partner, the Braswell Memorial Library. These include two issues from 1937 and 1938 of the Rocky Mount High School student newspaper, The Blackbird. These contain information on school news, sports and extracurriculars, student government, clubs and society memberships, parties, as well as an opinion section and a “Cupid’s Target” section recounting gossip like “Mary Dunn flirts with Monk Mason in glee club but she was with Charlie Harris that Friday night.” See the 179 other issues we have of The Blackbirdhere.
Additionally, we have added YMCA board meeting minutes from 1911-1927. This minute book includes other records concerned with the administration of the YMCA, such as financial documents, correspondence, and promotional literature. View all of our Braswell Memorial Library materials on Digital NC here and visit the Braswell Memorial Library site here.
The 1994-1999 volumes of The Carolina Times (Durham, N.C.) are now available, thanks to our partner UNC Chapel Hill. With this batch, volumes from 1937-1943 and 1949 through the rest of the 20th century are now searchable on Digital NC. Researchers can trace the evolution of this powerful voice for Durham’s Black community, which continued its tradition of advocating for accountability and equity into the 1990s.
The paper’s major concerns from the second half of the decade include police brutality, hate crimes and burnings of Black churches, and education issues — including charter schools, affirmative action, funding of HBCUs, and inequities in standardized testing. Many of the volumes reflect anxiety about the displacement of and underinvestment in Durham’s Black community in the post-“urban renewal” era. These issues and the manner in which they were addressed continues to reverberate in our present day. National news from this era includes the development of effective treatment for HIV/AIDS, the impeachment of President Bill Clinton, and the death of Betty Shabazz, Malcom X’s widow.
While the potential disaster of Y2K was avoided, the new millennium would bring many changes and challenges for The Carolina Times, including the retirement of its publisher Vivian Edmonds in 2002 and its ultimate closure in 2020. Future batches will document these changes and the continued prominence of The Carolina Times in North Carolina’s Black press landscape.
Two new scrapbooks have been added to Digital NC thanks to our partner, the Heritage Research Center at High Point Public Library. William Bencini served as the mayor of High Point, North Carolina in Guilford County from 1971-1973. In 1971 and 1972, Mayor Bencini and his wife were invited by Eastern Airlines and the City of Atlanta, Georgia to join their inaugural flights to Mexico and Jamaica out of Atlanta.
These scrapbooks depict these voyages through photographs, guest lists, itineraries, menus, and more. They provide interesting insight into air travel in the 1970s, document the activities of Mayor Bencini, and represent the history of the now-defunct Eastern Airlines. Additionally, the guest lists show some of the prominent figures in Atlanta and surrounding areas at the time. Through these images, researchers can witness the beaches, people, food, and tourist attractions that Mayor Bencini enjoyed on these trips. Perusing these scrapbooks, one feels transported to a bygone era as well as foreign countries. Access the scrapbooks here, and see more documents from the Heritage Research Center at High Point Public Library here.
Ten new diaries belonging to Mrs. Mary Kelly Watson Smith (c. 1831-1924) have been added to our site, thanks to our partners at Greensboro History Museum. Mary Smith was married to Reverend Jacob Henry Smith (1820-1897), who was the pastor of Greensboro’s First Presbyterian Church for over forty years. Rev. Smith was a popular preacher who greatly expanded the church’s membership during his tenure. The Smiths moved from Charlottesville to Greensboro, where they settled permanently and raised a large family of seven children. Possibly due to an attic fire in 1900, only the diaries from the latter years of her life survive, and they reflect the perspective of an experienced matriarch and active member of the greater Greensboro community.
The newly uploaded diaries, which cover the years 1904-1911, are concerned mainly with church events, local news, and the social landscape of Greensboro in the early twentieth century. She also delves into her personal and family life, as well as national politics and major figures of the era. The Smiths were active secessionists and Confederate supporters who enslaved people before Emancipation. Mary Smith repeatedly refers to “The Lost Cause” of the Confederacy with reverent nostalgia, and in 1911 describes a visit from Jim Henry, who was formerly enslaved by the Smith family.
These diaries are a valuable resource for anyone interested in early twentieth-century Greensboro, the First Presbyterian Church, or Southern history. Read more about Mary Kelly Watson Smith on the Greensboro History Museum website and view other materials from the Museum here.
New issues of The Carolina Times are now available on Digital NC thanks to our partner, the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. The Carolina Times, based in Durham, was North Carolina’s preeminent Black newspaper from its inception in 1921 to its final publication 2020.
Recently uploaded issues cover major events of the early 1990s. These events include Nelson Mandela’s release from prison and the fight to end apartheid, the Rodney King beating in Los Angeles and the ensuing protests over police brutality, the AIDS crisis, the death of Thurgood Marshall and contested confirmation of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court, and Mae Jemison’s historic mission into space. Additionally, these issues provide insight into the concerns, local news, leaders, and social events of Durham’s Black community.
The Carolina Times‘ dedication to Black empowerment and civil rights is evident in these pages, as it has been in previous years. The many op-eds speak to the social issues of the time and are evidence of the ongoing struggle for equality in 1990s America. These newspapers are a rich resource for researchers and historians, and can be accessed here.
This blog is maintained by the staff of the North Carolina Digital Heritage Center and features the latest news and highlights from the collections at DigitalNC, an online library of primary sources from organizations across North Carolina.
